MILE GULLY, Manchester — Member of Parliament for Manchester North Western Mikael Phillips has repeated his call for the construction of a new facility to house Mile Gully High School, the only secondary institution in the constituency.

“Mile Gully High School should have gotten a new school plant even before I became Member of Parliament and I have been [MP] since 2012 and we are still promised that school plant. As Member of Parliament I got 40 acres of land through Windalco for the new school plant that has been handed over to the Government, to the Ministry of Education. I have been hearing for the last seven years that the drawings and engineering works have started,” Phillips said on Monday as he joined a celebratory march with the school’s netball team.

According to Phillips, plans for the new plant have not progressed over several years.

“We have heard it announced in Parliament every budget year from the minister of education that the start of the [construction of a new plant for] Mile Gully High School is near. To be truthful, we are nowhere closer than we were last year or the year before,” charged Phillips.

The school now has a population of 559 students but Phillips said that does not mean a new plant is not needed.

“We are bursting at the seams. We cannot facilitate more than 720 students. We are still with five habitable classrooms. We had to abandon one building two years ago, because of termite infestations and just the safety of our students. We had to build makeshift buildings,” said Phillips while pointing to dilapidated infrastructure.

“The staffroom is leaking. The administrative block is just inadequate. We are still pleading with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education to see how best we can start that new school plant. It is not because we just want a new school, it is because we just have a facility that is not conducive for the students and the staff at Mile Gully High School. This should have been a school that facilitates over 1,200 students,” added Phillips as he appealed to the education ministry to advance plans for the new building.

“We are expecting to hear something from the Ministry of Education. I have been told by the permanent secretary [Dr Kasan Troupe], that they are far advanced in their drawings, but we don’t want the engagement, we want the marriage now. We want the new Mile Gully High School,” declared Phillips.

The MP commended Mile Gully High for its achievements in sports including netball, having recently won the Under-16 2025 Junior International Netball Classics and being the competition’s overall champions, as he noted that the school lacks proper sporting facilities, “including a football field, netball courts, just the basic sporting facilities”.

According to Phillips, “schools like Mile Gully High School are left behind”.